Notifying users of available searched domain names

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods of the present invention provide for one or more server computers communicatively coupled to a network and configured to: receive a search for a domain name; query a domain name registration record to determine an availability status of the domain name; if the domain name is unavailable, store the domain name in association with the user data record and a search date; determine whether a change in the availability status has occurred; and if so, determine whether the duration of time since the search date has passed; and if not, transmit to the contact a notice of the change in the availability status.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present inventions generally relate to the field of domain names andspecifically to the field of notifying interested users when a searcheddomain name becomes available for registration or purchase.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides systems and methods comprising one ormore databases communicatively coupled to a network and comprising auser id, a user contact associated with the user id, and a duration oftime. The disclosed systems and methods may also comprise one or moreserver computers communicatively coupled to a network and configured to:receive a search for a domain name; query a domain name registrationrecord to determine an availability status of the domain name;responsive to a determination that the availability status of the domainname is unavailable, store the domain name in association with the userdata record and a search date; determine whether a change in theavailability status has occurred; and responsive to a determination thatthe change in the availability status has occurred, determine whetherthe duration of time since the search date has passed; and responsive toa determination that the duration of time since the search date has notpassed, transmit to the contact a notice of the change in theavailability status.

The present invention may also provide systems and methods comprising adatabase communicatively coupled to a network and comprising: a contactdata associated with a registrant of a domain name; a domain name searchlog comprising at least one search for the domain name; a database flagindicating that the domain name registrant has elected to receive anotice of a status change about the domain name. The disclosed systemsand methods may also comprise one or more server computerscommunicatively coupled to the network and configured to: receive the atleast one search; generate the notice comprising: the at least onesearch; at least one unsolicited offer for the domain name; or avaluation of the domain name based on the at least one search or the atleast one unsolicited offer; identify the contact data in the database;and transmit the notice to the registrant via the contact data.

The above features and advantages of the present invention will bebetter understood from the following detailed description taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a possible system for notifying users of notifyinginterested users when a searched domain name becomes available forregistration or purchase.

FIG. 2 illustrates a more detailed possible system for notifyinginterested users when a searched domain name becomes available forregistration or purchase.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a possible embodiment of a methodfor notifying interested users when a searched domain name becomesavailable for registration or purchase.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a possible embodiment of a methodfor notifying interested users when a searched domain name becomesavailable for registration or purchase.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention will now be discussed in detail with regard to theattached drawing figures that were briefly described above. In thefollowing description, numerous specific details are set forthillustrating the Applicant's best mode for practicing the invention andenabling one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention.It will be obvious, however, to one skilled in the art that the presentinvention may be practiced without many of these specific details. Inother instances, well-known machines, structures, and method steps havenot been described in particular detail in order to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring the present invention. Unless otherwise indicated, like partsand method steps are referred to with like reference numerals.

A network is a collection of links and nodes (e.g., multiple computersand/or other devices connected together) arranged so that informationmay be passed from one part of the network to another over multiplelinks and through various nodes. Examples of networks include theInternet, the public switched telephone network, the global Telexnetwork, computer networks (e.g., an intranet, an extranet, a local-areanetwork, or a wide-area network), wired networks, and wireless networks.

The Internet is a worldwide network of computers and computer networksarranged to allow the easy and robust exchange of information betweencomputer users. Hundreds of millions of people around the world haveaccess to computers connected to the Internet via Internet ServiceProviders (ISPs). Content providers place multimedia information (e.g.,text, graphics, audio, video, animation, and other forms of data) atspecific locations on the Internet referred to as websites. Thecombination of all the websites and their corresponding web pages on theInternet is generally known as the World Wide Web (WWW) or simply theWeb.

Prevalent on the Web are multimedia websites, some of which may offerand sell goods and services to individuals and organizations. Websitesmay consist of a single webpage, but typically consist of multipleinterconnected and related web pages. Websites, unless extremely largeand complex or have unusual traffic demands, typically reside on asingle server and are prepared and maintained by a single individual orentity. Website browsers are able to locate specific websites becauseeach website, resource, and computer on the Internet has a uniqueInternet Protocol (IP) address.

IP addresses, however, even in human readable notation, are difficultfor people to remember and use. A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is mucheasier to remember and may be used to point to any computer, directory,or file on the Internet. A browser is able to access a website on theInternet through the use of a URL. The URL may include a HypertextTransfer Protocol (HTTP) request combined with the website's Internetaddress, also known as the website's domain name.

Domain names are much easier to remember and use than theircorresponding IP addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Namesand Numbers (ICANN) approves some Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) anddelegates the responsibility to a particular organization (a “registry”)for maintaining an authoritative source for the registered domain nameswithin a TLD and their corresponding IP addresses.

As the Internet has grown in size and influence, Domain names havebecome a digital asset with significant financial value. Because ofthis, users seeking to register domain names may put a great deal ofeffort into trying to find the ideal domain name. Many users will searchdomain names with a specific Top Level Domain (TLD—e.g., .com) and/orSecond Level Domain (SLD—e.g., “example” in the domain name example.com)that they want to register.

Customer perception continues to reflect an outlook that “.com is king.”Domain name search records continue to confirm that .com TLDs areespecially popular and continue to dominate domain name registrations.

Users may search for domain names out of curiosity, or may have seensuggestions for available domain names that trigger ideas for additionaldomain name searches for the user. Users will often search for domainnames via domain name search tools such as a text box that receives adomain name search string from the user. These domain name search toolsmay be available as part of a domain name search software interface,possibly found on a registrar or other domain name services website.

If the domain name a user searches is not available, users will oftencontinue to use the search tools for searching alternative domain names,including SLDs and TLDs for related domain names, despite the fact thatdomain name registrars and other domain name search services oftenprovide suggestions for similar or related domain names.

Roughly 65% of searches today result in the user not finding theavailable domain name that they originally searched. Domain names may beunavailable for a variety of reasons. For example, the domain name mayresolve to an existing website using the domain name. A domain nameregistrant may also have registered the domain name to monetize it,possibly via a parked web page. The domain name registrar may alsoanticipate selling the registered domain name on a domain nameaftermarket. In some instances, the domain name registrant may haveregistered the domain name, but has no interest in pursuing any optionsfor the domain name.

The high unavailability of domain names may cause users to search fordomain names an average of 4-5 times before they find a domain name toregister that fits their needs. The high end of this average may be asmany as 10-12 searches before the user finds an acceptable domain name.

Over time, unavailable domain names may become available because ofdisuse, where a registrant drops a domain name or allows it to expire. Adomain name drop list may comprise a list containing expired domainnames soon to be deleted from a domain name registry, and may be used toidentify expiring domain names with value.

Unavailable domain names may also become available because the domainname registrant wishes to sell the domain name at auction in a domainname aftermarket. Domain name aftermarkets may comprise any secondarymarket for domain names. Parties in a domain name aftermarket mayregister bids or negotiate prices to transfer registration from theregistered holder to a new registered holder of that domain name.

Applicant has identified multiple weaknesses in presently existingsystems and methods, which do not effectively leverage records generatedfrom domain name searches to provide feedback to the searching user thatthe searched domain name is now available for registration. Applicanthas therefore determined that optimal systems and methods will utilizesuch data from domain name searches to alert searching users thatpreviously-searched domain names have become available.

To accomplish this, the disclosed system may receive domain namesearches from a user and track the user, as well as the user's domainname searches for specific domain names, in a database. Each trackedsearch stored in the database may include an identifier for the userthat searched the domain name, the domain name or keywords searched, andthe date of the search. The system may then aggregate all searches forthe user, as well as all searches for all users, and store thesesearches in data storage. The data storage may also store a duration oftime, explained below.

The disclosed system may also monitor and track domain names that becomeavailable through being dropped, becoming expired and/or becomingavailable on a domain name aftermarket. The availability of the domainname through these means may automatically trigger a notice to be sentto the interested user informing them of the availability of theirsearched domain name. However, before sending the notice, the system maydetermine if the duration of time stored in the database has passed. Ifthe duration of time has not passed, the system may send the notice to acontact for the interested user, stored in data storage. In someembodiments, a more permanent solution may exist where, regardless ofthe duration of time that has passed, the interested user may stillreceive notice if a domain name has become available.

Current domain name registrants may be interested in selling one or moredomain names in their domain name portfolio, possibly by listing thedomain names in a domain name aftermarket, but may be hesitant to do sobecause of their perception that there is no interest in the domainname, or if there is interest, that the bids received in the domain nameaftermarket would be lower than the registrant is willing to accept.

Likewise, current users interested in purchasing unavailable domainnames may want to purchase specific unavailable domain names for aspecific price, but if the domain name is not listed in a domain nameaftermarket, may have no means to inform the current registrant of whatthey are willing to pay to acquire the domain name.

Consequently, Applicant has also identified multiple additionalweaknesses in presently existing systems and methods for providinginterested parties with means to contact the current registrant, andvice versa, to express their interest, submit bids, negotiateaftermarket sales via offers and counteroffers, etc. Presently existingsystems and methods also do not provide such registrants with effectivemeans to determine the expressed level of interest in domain names inthe domain name registrant's portfolio, and/or to determine the pricethat interested parties would be willing to pay to acquire the domainnames.

Applicant has therefore determined that optimal systems and methods willutilize data from domain name searches, user control panels and softwarelogic to provide means both for a current registrant to select optionsto receive offers for registered domain names and for one or more usersinterested in one or more domain names to contact the current registrantof the domain name with offers for specific domain names, therebyproviding the domain name registrant with information to determine alevel of interest in one or more domain names, as well as a generalprice range interested parties are willing to pay for the domainname(s). The level of interest and the general price range may be usedto calculate a valuation for the domain name. The domain name registrantmay use this valuation to determine whether or not to list the domainname(s) in the domain name aftermarket.

To accomplish this, the disclosed system may generate, and transmit to aclient for display, a user interface providing options for a currentdomain name registrant to provide contact information to receive domainname purchase offers. As the domain names are being searched, thesoftware may determine if each searched domain name is available forregistration and generate a domain name search log as disclosed herein.

If the domain name is not available, the software may search one or moredomain name registration records to identify the current domain nameregistrant for the searched domain name, and any provided contact dataassociated with the registrant. If contact data for the domain nameregistrant is identified, the software may generate, and transmit to aclient computer for display, a user interface allowing the party thatsearched the domain name to make an offer for the domain name. Thisoffer, along with any other offers from users that searched the domainname, may be forwarded to the current registrant, if the registrant hasselected the options to receive such notices.

The current registrant and interested user may then negotiate the saleof the domain name. Successful domain name transactions using thissystem may incentivize current domain name registrants to consolidatetheir current domain names into a consolidated portfolio and list thedomain names more frequently on the domain name aftermarket. The userinterface and software logic may be used to facilitate such listings inthe domain name aftermarket.

Several different environments may be used to accomplish the methodsteps of embodiments disclosed herein. FIG. 1 demonstrates a streamlinedexample and FIG. 2 demonstrates a more detailed example of anenvironment including a system and/or structure that may be used toaccomplish the methods and embodiments disclosed and described herein.Such methods may be performed by any central processing unit (CPU) inany computing system, such as a microprocessor running on at least oneserver 110 and/or client 120, and executing instructions stored (perhapsas scripts and/or software, possibly as software modules/components) incomputer-readable media accessible to the CPU, such as a hard disk driveon a server 110 and/or client 120.

The example embodiments shown and described herein exist within theframework of a network 100 and should not limit possible networkconfiguration or connectivity. Such a network 100 may comprise, asnon-limiting examples, any combination of the Internet, the publicswitched telephone network, the global Telex network, computer networks(e.g., an intranet, an extranet, a local-area network, or a wide-areanetwork), a wired network, a wireless network, a telephone network, acorporate network backbone or any other combination of known or laterdeveloped networks.

At least one server 110 and at least one client 120 may becommunicatively coupled to the network 100 via any method of networkconnection known in the art or developed in the future including, butnot limited to wired, wireless, modem, dial-up, satellite, cable modem,Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Asymmetric Digital Subscribers Line(ASDL), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Integrated Services DigitalNetwork (ISDN), X.25, Ethernet, token ring, Fiber Distributed DataInterface (FDDI), IP over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), InfraredData Association (IrDA), wireless, WAN technologies (T1, Frame Relay),Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE), and/or any combinationthereof.

The example embodiments herein place no limitations on whom or what maycomprise users. Thus, as non-limiting examples, users may comprise anyindividual, entity, business, corporation, partnership, organization,governmental entity, and/or educational institution that may haveoccasion to organize/import contacts and/or send marketing campaigns.

Server(s) 110 may comprise any computer or program that providesservices to other computers, programs, or users either in the samecomputer or over a computer network 100. As non-limiting examples, theserver 110 may comprise application, communication, mail, database,proxy, fax, file, media, web, peer-to-peer, standalone, software, orhardware servers (i.e., server computers) and may use any server formatknown in the art or developed in the future (possibly a shared hostingserver, a virtual dedicated hosting server, a dedicated hosting server,a cloud hosting solution, a grid hosting solution, or any combinationthereof) and may be used, for example to provide access to the dataneeded for the software combination requested by a client 120.

The server 110 may exist within a server cluster, as illustrated. Theseclusters may include a group of tightly coupled computers that worktogether so that in many respects they can be viewed as though they area single computer. The components may be connected to each other throughfast local area networks which may improve performance and/oravailability over that provided by a single computer.

The client 120 may be any computer or program that provides services toother computers, programs, or users either in the same computer or overa computer network 100. As non-limiting examples, the client 120 may bean application, communication, mail, database, proxy, fax, file, media,web, peer-to-peer, or standalone computer, cell phone, personal digitalassistant (PDA), etc. which may contain an operating system, a full filesystem, a plurality of other necessary utilities or applications or anycombination thereof on the client 120. Non limiting example programmingenvironments for client applications may include JavaScript/AJAX (clientside automation), ASP, JSP, Ruby on Rails, Python's Django, PHP, HTMLpages or rich media like Flash, Flex or Silverlight.

The client(s) 120 that may be used to connect to the network 100 toaccomplish the illustrated embodiments may include, but are not limitedto, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a hand held computer, aterminal, a television, a television set top box, a cellular phone, awireless phone, a wireless hand held device, an Internet access device,a rich client, thin client, or any other client functional with aclient/server computing architecture. Client software may be used forauthenticated remote access to a hosting computer or server. These maybe, but are not limited to being accessed by a remote desktop programand/or a web browser, as are known in the art.

The user interface displayed on the client(s) 120 or the server(s) 110may be any graphical, textual, scanned and/or auditory information acomputer program presents to the user, and the control sequences such askeystrokes, movements of the computer mouse, selections with a touchscreen, scanned information etc. used to control the program. Examplesof such interfaces include any known or later developed combination ofGraphical User Interfaces (GUI) or Web-based user interfaces as seen inthe accompanying drawings, Touch interfaces, Conversational InterfaceAgents, Live User Interfaces (LUI), Command line interfaces, Non-commanduser interfaces, Object-oriented User Interfaces (OOUI) or Voice userinterfaces. The commands received within the software combination, orany other information, may be accepted using any field, widget and/orcontrol used in such interfaces, including but not limited to atext-box, text field, button, hyper-link, list, drop-down list,check-box, radio button, data grid, icon, graphical image, embeddedlink, etc.

The server 110 may be communicatively coupled to data storage 130including any information requested or required by the system and/ordescribed herein. The data storage 130 may be any computer components,devices, and/or recording media that may retain digital data used forcomputing for some interval of time. The storage may be capable ofretaining stored content for any data required, on a single machine orin a cluster of computers over the network 100, in separate memory areasof the same machine such as different hard drives, or in separatepartitions within the same hard drive, such as a database partition.

Non-limiting examples of the data storage 130 may include, but are notlimited to, a Network Area Storage, (“NAS”), which may be aself-contained file level computer data storage connected to andsupplying a computer network with file-based data storage services. Thestorage subsystem may also be a Storage Area Network (“SAN”—anarchitecture to attach remote computer storage devices to servers insuch a way that the devices appear as locally attached), an NAS-SANhybrid, any other means of central/shared storage now known or laterdeveloped or any combination thereof.

Structurally, the data storage 130 may comprise any collection of data.As non-limiting examples, the data storage 130 may comprise a localdatabase, online database, desktop database, server-side database,relational database, hierarchical database, network database, objectdatabase, object-relational database, associative database,concept-oriented database, entity-attribute-value database,multi-dimensional database, semi-structured database, star schemadatabase, XML database, file, collection of files, spreadsheet, and/orother means of data storage such as a magnetic media, hard drive, otherdisk drive, volatile memory (e.g., RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g., ROMor flash), and/or any combination thereof.

The server(s) 110 or software modules within the server(s) 110 may usequery languages such as MSSQL or MySQL to retrieve the content from thedata storage 130. Server-side scripting languages such as ASP, PHP,CGI/Perl, proprietary scripting software/modules/components etc. may beused to process the retrieved data. The retrieved data may be analyzedin order to determine the actions to be taken by the scripting language,including executing any method steps disclosed herein.

The software modules/components of the software combination used in thecontext of the current invention may be stored in the memory of—and runon—at least one server 110. As non-limiting examples of such software,the paragraphs below describe in detail the software modules/componentsthat make up the software combination. These software modules/componentsmay comprise software and/or scripts containing instructions that, whenexecuted by a microprocessor on a server 110 or client 120, cause themicroprocessor to accomplish the purpose of the module/component asdescribed in detail herein. The software combination may also shareinformation, including data from data sources and/or variables used invarious algorithms executed on the servers 110 and/or clients 120 withinthe system, between each module/component of the software combination asneeded.

A data center 140 may provide hosting services for the softwarecombination, or any related hosted website including, but not limited tohosting one or more computers or servers in a data center 140 as well asproviding the general infrastructure necessary to offer hosting servicesto Internet users including hardware, software, Internet web sites,hosting servers, and electronic communication means necessary to connectmultiple computers and/or servers to the Internet or any other network100.

FIG. 2 shows a more detailed example embodiment of an environment forthe systems, and for accomplishing the method steps, disclosed herein.As non-limiting examples, all disclosed software modules 200 may run onone or more server(s) 110 and may include one or more user interfacesgenerated by the server(s) 110 and transmitted to and displayed on theclient(s) 120. The user interface(s) may be configured to receive inputfrom the user and transmit this input to the server(s) 110 for theadministration and execution of the software 200, using data in datastorage 130 associated with the software modules 200. Thus, thedisclosed system may be configured to execute any or all of the methodsteps disclosed herein.

Server(s) 110 may be hosted by any entity, possibly a hosting provider,a domain name registrar, a website development company, any othersoftware service provider or any combination thereof. To manage users ofsuch a system, including individuals or organizations, server(s) 110 mayhost and run a user administration program 210 such as GoDaddy's MyAccount control panel for management of hosting and domain names, as anon-limiting example.

In such an administration control panel program, or admin 210, each usermay be assigned a user id. This user id may identify transactionsperformed by each user. These transactions may be stored as data recordsin data storage 130, each data record including the user id to associatethe user with the transaction in data storage 130.

The data records may also store contact data 220 for each user, possiblyincluding email, SMS, social media account data, etc. to contact theuser for any contact purposes disclosed herein. In some embodiments, theuser may select specific contacts as a means of contact for purposes ofreceiving notice as disclosed in the current invention.

The admin 210 may include a Domain Control Center (DCC) foradministration of domain names registered to the user. As non-limitingexamples, the DCC may include means for listing and managing all domainnames registered to the registrant, possibly including auto renewal ofthe domains, DNS record settings, etc. In some embodiments, the DCC maybe used to display the disclosed notices, reports and/or domain namepurchase offers, as described in more detail herein.

The user may select settings from the admin 210 to controladministration of the disclosed invention. In addition, software 200running on server(s) 110 may analyze all transaction data received inassociation with any given user id (or with all transaction datareceived), calculate appropriate parameters for the administration ofthe disclosed invention, and/or may set calculated optimal defaultparameters, as discussed in detail below. Thus, any combination of usersettings and/or software calculations for user parameters may be used tomanage the disclosed invention.

One example parameter that may be set by the user in the administrationinterface and/or calculated by the software 200 may include the durationof time. As noted above, a user may only want to receive notices aboutavailable domain names they have searched during a specified period oftime after searching them. Using the admin 210, the user may select thispre-determined duration of time during which they want to continue toreceive notices about searched domain names that have now becomeavailable. After this duration of time has expired for each of thesearched domain names, notices would no longer be sent to the user.However, as mentioned above, if the user would prefer to continuereceiving notices of available domain names regardless of the durationof time that has passed, they may use the administration interface toindicate this option as well. In these embodiments, the notice willcontinue to be sent as long as the domain name is made available.

In other embodiments, software 200 may determine an average or optimalduration of time during which to continue sending notices of availablesearched domain names. Software 200 may utilize and analyze anyavailable resources and data to determine patterns in the user'spreferred duration of time, if applicable. As non-limiting examples,software 200 may analyze all records of time periods entered by the userover time and automatically set the duration of time as an average or alongest of the user's entered time periods.

In other embodiments, software 200 may analyze user search logs 230,possibly by identifying these logs 230 according to a user id, andcross-reference them with user registration records to determine thelength of time between the search for each domain name and theregistration of the searched domain name. The system may then calculatethe average of this length of time and/or identify the longest length oftime for all domain names searched and registered by the user. Thesystem may then automatically set the duration of time to either theaverage of the length of time for all domain name searches/registrationsor the longest length of time identified, if applicable.

In other embodiments, software 200 may analyze all user search logs 230and cross-reference them with all user registration records to determinethe length of time between the search for each domain name and theregistration of each searched domain name. Software 200 may thencalculate the average of this length of time and/or identify the longestlength of time for all domain names searched and registered by allusers. Software 200 may then automatically set the pre-determined lengthof time to either the average of the length of time for all domain namesearches/registrations or the longest length of time identified.

Additional example parameters that may be set by the user in theadministration interface and/or calculated by software 200 may includeparameters to determine the amount and format of notices sent to theuser. In some embodiments, rather than searching a domain name as asingle text string, the user may search one or more keywords todetermine available domain names.

For example, a user may search “Scottsdale” with “attorney” or “lawyer”to identify available domain names containing, synonymous with, orrelated to these keywords (e.g., scottsdalelawyer.com is synonymous withscottsdaleattorney.com). Software 200 on server(s) 110 may generate andtransmit a notice when domain names containing the searched orsynonymous words become available.

However, depending on the number of domain name searches and the numberof possible matches available, the user could become inundated withnotices so that none of the notices are useful to the user. To avoidsuch inundations, the user may set, or the software 200 may calculate,an optimal amount and format for available domain name notices,according to any of the following disclosed parameters (possibly as arange of acceptable parameters) and/or data aggregated in associationwith individual users (i.e., associated with a user id) or with allusers, as disclosed above.

Such parameters may include: previous domain names searched andregistered by the user; the total number of these searches andregistrations; the “token distance” between the domain names originallysearched and the domain name ultimately registered; related orsynonymous keywords within SLDs of related available domain names; theTLD associated with the domain name; the valuation/aftermarket price ofrelated available domain names; any similar parameters or anycombination thereof.

As a non-limiting example, the token distance between each of thefollowing use cases would be a token distance of 1: “starwars” and“starwar” (dropped character), “starwars” and “estarwars” (addedcharacter), and “starwars” and “starwarz” (replaced character). Thelarger the token distance, the less relevance may apply in terms of thename being similar to the user's original query. The position of thechange in characters may also influence the relevance of the similarsuggestion. If token distances are minimal (as in the case ofsingular/plural words), the resulting suggestion may offer value whichis very closely aligned with the original query. Hence, token distanceunder a algorithmically defined threshold (e.g., differs by language)would be leveraged to trigger notices.

The total number of domain names searched and registered by the user(s)may be one parameter analyzed in determining the amount and format ofavailable domain name notices generated and transmitted to the user.Some users may search many different domain names on an hourly or dailybasis, while other users may search only a few domain namesoccasionally, possibly with months between searches.

To accommodate both types of users, the administration interface mayreceive input from users selecting whether to receive an alert as eachsearched domain name becomes available, or to aggregate the availabledomain names that have become available during the designated timeperiod into a single mass alert, a set of alerts or other summary ofalerts sent at regular intervals (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly, monthly,etc.).

Software 200 may similarly analyze and apply data within domain namesearch logs 230 to make an automated determination whether a user shouldbe sent a notice for each domain name that becomes available, or whetherthey should be sent a bulk notice, possibly including a set, list and/ora summary of notices including all notices for the designated durationof time (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, etc.), if applicable.

Software 200 may make this determination based on domain name searchesperformed and/or domain names registered by each user individually,and/or the users collectively. In these embodiments, software 200 maytrack these activities for a particular user id. If the user associatedwith the user id performs many searches and/or registers many domainnames, the disclosed software algorithms and logic may determine thatthe user would prefer a bulk notice listing all available domain namenotices in a single communication.

However, If the user associated with the user id performs relatively fewsearches and registers relatively few domain names, the disclosedsoftware algorithms and logic may determine that the user would preferan individual notice for each searched domain name that becomesavailable.

The user's past domain name search and registration history may beanother parameter in determining the amount and format of availabledomain name notices generated and transmitted to the user. In someembodiments, the user's domain name searches may be aggregated from thedomain name search log 230 and domain name registration recordsassociated with the user, possibly according to the user id. The resultsof these aggregations may be displayed to the user, possibly as aspecific page comprising an alert mechanism within a domain name controlcenter within the admin 210 or within an email, with options to selectthe previously searched domain names that the user is specificallyinterested in learning about or registering If they become available.

In some automated embodiments, software running on server(s) 110 may useaggregated data to determine the user's interest and likelihood ofregistering available domain names. The user's domain name searchesand/or registrations may be aggregated from the domain name search log230 and/or domain name registration records respectively associated withthe user id. The searched and/or registered domain names may be comparedto determine a level of perceived importance to each user of each domainname.

These records may also be compared and analyzed on a more granular levelto determine: the amount of time between the search and theregistration; which domain names were registered with synonymouskeywords; what domain names were registered in addition to theregistered domain name on the same date; etc. These details may be usedto calculate a prediction of the likelihood of the user registering aparticular domain name in the future, and therefore, which notices, andin what format, should be generated and transmitted to the user.

The domain name search log 230 and/registration records may also be usedto determine which TLDs may be considered valuable by the user andtherefore which available domain names should trigger a notice to besent to the user. For example, search logs 230 and/or domain nameregistration records associated with the user id may show that the userregisters mostly .com TLDs.

Therefore, using the non-limiting example above, if the registrationlogs 230 show that the user has searched and/or registeredscottsdalelawyer.com, the software logic may determine that the user islikely to consider scottsdalettorney.com as a valuable domain namesuggestion and would therefore want to receive a notice that it hasbecome available, while scottsdalelawyer.info or scottsdalelawyer.bizwould be considered less valuable, reducing the likelihood that the userwould want to receive a notice when they become available.

The software may likewise be configured to generate and transmit noticesbased on searches in the global search log 230. Software 200 may beinclude logic to compare and calculate this likelihood based on globalsearch logs 230 and registration records to determine the most popularTLDs, and similarly determine that the most popular TLDs will be ofvalue to the user, and therefore a high probability that the user wouldbe interested in receiving notices for the most popular TLDs.

In other embodiments, the user may set their own parameters for whichSLDs and TLDs are considered valuable, possibly via the admin 210 oremail interfaces, and would therefore like to receive a notice when suchSLDs or TLDs become available.

The domain name search log 230 and/or registration records may also beused to determine which price ranges may be considered valuable by theuser, and therefore which available domain names should trigger a noticeto be sent to the user. In other embodiments, the user may set their ownparameters for which price ranges are considered valuable, possibly viathe admin 210 or email interfaces, and would therefore like to receive anotices when domain names are available in the designated price range.

For example, search logs 230 and domain name registration recordsassociated with the user id may show that the user registers mostlydomain names in a specified price range. Therefore, any domain namessignificantly above this price range may be determined to be of littleinterest to the user.

Using the non-limiting example above, software 200 may analyze datawithin the domain name search log 230 and/or registration recordsassociated with a user id and determine that scottsdalelawyer.co islisted for a very high price. Based on the previously establishedhistory for the user, software 200 may determine that very few non-.comdomain names have been registered by the user, and that the user has nothistorically paid the amount for any domain names being asked forscottsdalelawyer.co. Software 200 may therefore determine that the useris not interested in receiving notices for scottsdalelawyer.co at theasked price.

In some embodiments, software on server(s) 110 may also crawl web pagesto discover which of the registered domain names resolve to currentactive web pages. If the user has associated the domain names withactive web pages, the software may conclude that the registered domainnames are valuable to the user, and adjust the amount and format ofavailable domain name notices accordingly.

Having established the user settings via the admin 210, or by software200 having calculated an optimal default, the user may search for adesired domain name, possibly via the previously described search tool,available via the admin 210 or a registrar website, as non-limitingexamples. The user may enter the domain name into a search tool andsubmit the search, which may then be transmitted to server(s) 110.

In some embodiments, rather than searching the entire domain name, theuser may search one or more keywords to determine available domainnames. In these embodiments, the keywords searched may also be stored indata storage 130, possibly as separate data records associated with theuser id and/or a domain name search session. In some embodiments, asession may comprise all searches from entering the search tool toending it.

Server(s) 110 may receive the domain name search string and searchavailable registry 240 and zone files to determine if the domain name isavailable for registry. If the domain name is available, the user mayregister the domain name using any domain registration methods known inthe art.

If server(s) 110 make a determination that the domain name is notavailable, a plurality of alternative domain name suggestions may begenerated and transmitted to client(s) 120 for display to the user usingany domain suggestion methods known in the art.

The user may then either select and register one of the suggested domainnames, or may continue to search domain names using the domain searchtool. In some embodiments, each of these searches may comprise a searchstring comprising the entire searched domain name. In other embodiments,the user may enter the SLD as a text string and select the desired TLDfrom a drop down, radio button, checkbox, etc.

Server(s) 110 may collect the data from domain name searches andgenerate a log 230 of all domain name searches performed. No limitationsshould be placed on the method of aggregating and/or generating this log230. As non-limiting examples, the log 230 may comprise a text filecapable of being parsed to identify relevant information, or may bestored as a plurality of data records in a database 130, each associatedwith a user id or session id.

The domain name search logs 230 generated by server(s) 110 may includeany data collected from the user during a domain name search. Asnon-limiting examples, server(s) 110 may identify the user making thedomain name search. In embodiments where the user is associated with auser id, the server may identify the search coming from this user id inorder to track domain name searches from this user id.

The domain name search logs 230 may also include the domain namesearched and the date the search was performed, as non-limitingexamples. In embodiments using keywords searched by the user to find anavailable domain name, the domain name search logs 230 may also includethe keywords used in the domain name search.

In embodiments that store the domain name search logs 230 as datarecords in data storage 130, the data records may each comprise datafields for the user id associated with the domain name search.Individual records may likewise contain data fields for the text stringsand/or keywords used to search the domain name and the date of thedomain name search.

Server(s) 110 may aggregate the domain name searches for individualusers, as well as domain name searches for all users, into the domainname search log 230 used herein. It should be noted that although manydomain name searches from many users may be aggregated into the finaldomain name search log 230, the distribution of a specific domain nameacross different users will be sparse, since it is unlikely that twodifferent users will search for an identical domain name.

Server(s) 110 may also track domain name registration activity for eachuser associated with a user id in the system. This domain name activitymay comprise data such as the name of the domain name registered,keywords associated with the domain name, the date the domain name wasregistered, etc. In some embodiments, the domain name registration datamay be stored in data storage 130 as data records including orassociated with a particular user id. This domain name registration datamay be cross-referenced with the domain name search logs 230 to performthe analyses disclosed herein.

Server(s) 110 may be configured to track unavailable domain names asthey become available. Such domain names may be come available as adomain name is dropped, becomes expired, or is offered on a domain nameaftermarket by a current registrant of the domain name.

In some embodiments, the administrator of the system, such as GoDaddy,may be a domain name registrar, or may administrate a domain nameaftermarket. In these instances, the administrator may have access todomain name registration records, user administration account records,domain name drop lists, domain name reseller administration accountrecords, and/or available domain names as they become offered in thedomain name aftermarket. The domain name registrar in these embodimentsmay cross-reference these available domain names with software 200 togenerate the notices as disclosed.

Software 200 may compare the stored domain name search logs 230 with thereceived data to determine whether any of the searched domain names arenow available for registration, possibly in the domain name aftermarket.

In some embodiments, the comparison may be a direct comparison of theavailable domain names with the domain names searched. As noted above,in other embodiments, the comparison may be based on keywords orsynonyms of keywords. In these embodiments, software 200 may beconfigured to tokenize the available domain names, as well as thesearched domain names. Software 200 may then compare each of the tokensin the available domain names with those in the searched domain names toidentify common tokens.

As a non-limiting example, if the stored domain name search recordsindicate that a user searched “Scottsdale” and “lawyer,” a notice may besent to the user when the domain name scottsdalelawyer.com becomesavailable, recommending this domain name as with a high probably thatthe user will consider it a high value domain name.

In embodiments where the available domain names and the searched domainnames are tokenized, a synonym dictionary or other resources may besearched to determine synonyms for the tokens. Notices may be augmentedin these and similar embodiments to include notices for not only thesearched domain names but also domain names containing the identifiedsynonyms.

Using the non-limiting example above, a notice may be sent to the userwhen the domain name scottsdalelawyer.com becomes available, but mayalso be sent for the domain names scottsdaleattorney.com and/orscottsdalelawyer.attorney, recommending these domain name as with a highprobably that the user will consider it a high value domain name.

Prior to sending the alert to the user that one or more of the domainnames that they have searched are available for registration, server(s)110 may analyze the factors listed above to determine whether or not tosend the alert to the user.

An additional factor that software 200 may analyze in determiningwhether or not to send the notice to the user is whether or not thedomain name has already been registered by the user. Because the userhas previously searched the domain name, there is a good chance that theuser has been monitoring the domain name and registered the domain nameindependently.

To avoid sending an alert to a user for an available domain name thatthey have already registered, software 200 may perform a secondary checkon any available domain name records (e.g., zone files, domainaftermarket access, WHOIS, etc.), to ensure that the user or anotheruser has not already registered the domain name that is the subject ofthe alert.

Thus, if a match is found between the domain names searched and themonitored available domain names, and if all threshold factors have beenovercome in determining whether or not to send the notice, software 200may generate the notice to transmit to the user that searched thematching domain name at any contacts associated with the searchinguser's user id.

The notice may comprise the domain name searched by the interested user,and may include a message that the searched name is now available. Anemail may be sent back to the customer informing them that the domainname is again available for immediate registration.

In some embodiments, domain name registration records may be searched todetermine the availability of the searched domain names) and the resultsmay be displayed on the user interface. Some of these embodiments mayalso include a display including a user interface for the interesteduser to contact the current registrant of the searched domain name withan offer to acquire the domain name.

During the domain name search by the interested party, if softwaredetermines that the domain name searched by the interested party iscurrently registered, the software may consult the stored domain namerecords to determine the current domain name registrant, and whether thecurrent domain name registrant has opted into receiving domain nameacquisition offers.

If the domain name registrant has opted into such offers, the softwaremay generate, transmit and display to the interested party a userinterface on the domain name search tool with an option to send an emailof to the current registrant expressing interest in acquiring the domainname, and possibly an offer price for the domain name.

Embodiments such as these may apply to domain name registrants that haveopted into receiving such domain name acquisition offers. In theseembodiments, the DCC may display a list of all domain names currentlyregistered to the registrant. For each of these domain names, theregistrant may select the domain names, possibly via checkboxesdisplayed next to the listed domain names, to apply options for thedomain names.

One example of such options applied to registered and selected domainnames may include generating reports about the number of searchesmatching these domain names in the domain name search tool. Software 200may utilize the aggregated search logs 230 described above tocross-reference the selected domain names against the listed andselected domain names.

Software may then monitor the selected domain names and as each searchis received via the domain name search tool, that search may be added toa running total number of searches for that domain name. The report mayinclude the total number, at the reporting interval, of searches for theselected domain names. In some embodiments, the reporting interval maybe determined by a user setting in DCC, such as for hourly, daily,weekly, monthly reports, etc.

The report may be received by the registrar via the DCC or may be sentto any contact data, such as an email, SMS message, social mediamessage, etc., associated with the domain name registrant. The reportmay be received according to the reporting interval set by the user asnoted above.

The report may comprise each domain name searched in the search toolthat is not available and matches a domain name for which a registranthas opted in to receive a report. Software 200 may keep a running totalin data storage 130 of such matches. Software 200 may identify thereporting interval and identify the running total overall and/or therunning total since the last reporting interval.

In some embodiments, the running total may include exact matches betweenthe searched domain name and the domain names registered to theregistrant. In some embodiments, the running total may be modified toinclude keyword searches that match domain names registered to theregistrant.

The report may comprise: a listing of domain names, including thosedomain names listed on a domain name aftermarket and those domain namesthat are not listed on a domain name aftermarket; a summary of alltraffic from interested parties searching the domain names; an estimatedvaluation of the domain names searched, based on the traffic searchingthe domain name(s); and the number of search results in which the domainname would have appeared if the domain name was listed on a domain nameaftermarket, possibly interpreted as the number of customers that couldbe, but are not actually seeing the domain name.

The estimated valuation of the domain name(s) searched may be based onmultiple factors including, but not limited to: similar names sold onthe aftermarket; current open aftermarket listings; Google search trendson words in the domain name; current/past traffic volumes to a websiteassociated with the domain name; a search engine optimization score;being white-listed by search engines (no adult/porn/spam content) andany other relevant factors.

A determination of a number of search results in which the domain namewould have appeared if the domain name was listed on the domain nameaftermarket may be based on multiple factors including, but not limitedto: the number of times customers either search for the exact domainname, perform a WHOIS search on the exact domain name, and/or the numberof times the domain name would have surfaced in the top N search results(but was effectively filtered out as it was not available).

Thus, based on the traffic and valuation of the domain names searched,the report may encourage the registrant to consolidate domain names intoa single portfolio, and/or may identify which domain names that arecurrently not listed in the domain name aftermarket should be. Toencourage participation in the domain name aftermarket for this searcheddomain name. The report may include a link or other access to a controlpanel, possibly the DCC, allowing the registrant to list the domain namein the aftermarket. Such control panels may include a selection to listthe domain name and the pricing for the aftermarket.

In some embodiments, the control panel where the domain traffic from thesearch results is listed may also show the valuation for the domainname. In some embodiments, this valuation may be provided by a domainname aftermarket valuation service such as AFTERNIC. This valuation maygive the registrant a view into what a realistic valuation may be, whichwould represent beneficial information for a registrant to considersetting a minimum price if they do choose to list their domain name inthe domain name aftermarket.

In a non-limiting example, a user may receive a weekly email with areport identifying 30 different searches by 30 different customerscoming from websites for three different geographical locations (e.g.,customers searching from www.godaddy.com, uk.godaddy.com andindia.godaddy.com). In this example, the report may identify an Americanmarket, a British market and an Indian market as three markets whereexact matches were searched in traffic. The report may inform the domainname registrant that if these domain names had been listed in the domainname aftermarket, the domain name would have shown up 145 times in thesearch results.

In addition to receiving reports, options applied to registered andselected domain names may include selecting the domain names for whichthe registrant desires to receive offers for acquiring the selecteddomain names. In these embodiments, the registrant may be prompted toprovide contact information to which such offers should be sent. Thismay be entered as each domain name is selected, or may use contactinformation associated in the database with the registrant, asnon-limiting examples. Other options may be presented to the user tohave such offers displayed in the DCC as notices.

To increase the options available to monetize the registrar's domainname, the registrant may also select options within the DCC or elsewhereto send an email to interested parties who have searched the domain namebeing listed on the domain name aftermarket, so that interested partiesare aware of the listing on the aftermarket as soon as it is listed andcan make bids. Thus, the domain name may be available to both futurecustomers and those who have logged in and searched the domain name,which has now become available on the aftermarket.

In some embodiments, a domain name registrant may not have an activewebsite associated with the domain name, but the WHOIS data associatedwith the domain name may show contact information for the registrant,which has not been abstracted by a domain name privacy service. In theseembodiments, if a high volume of domain name searches have been loggedfor the domain name, the contact data in the WHOIS record may be used tonotify the user of the high volume of searches. The contact may includea link for the user to access the admin 210. If the user has not alreadycreated a user account within the admin, means for creating such anaccount may be provided, thereby creating a rich source of potentialcustomers to a domain name registrar or the provider of the disclosedservice.

The embodiments above are presented from the domain name registrant'sperspective. However, other embodiments may be approached from theperspective of the user that searched the domain name.

In these embodiments, the interested party may search a specific domainname, and software 200 may identify the domain name searched anddetermine if an exact match exists in data storage 130 as previouslydescribed. If so, software 200 may identify the user id for theregistrant for the domain name portfolio that includes the domain namematch and may access any stored contact information for the registrant.

If contact information for the registrant is found, an additional userinterface may be displayed to the interested user, allowing them tocontact the registrant with an unsolicited offer for the searched domainname. The displayed interface may include means for the interested userto enter an offer price for the domain name. The user input from theuser interface may be submitted and transmitted to the contact dataassociated with the domain name registrant.

The registrant for the searched domain name may receive the offer forthe domain name, and if the domain name is a greater value thanoriginally perceived by the registrant, the domain name registrant mayrecognize the value in the domain name and either begin negotiations viaoffers and counteroffers for the domain name, or may list it in thedomain name aftermarket.

The software may also include logic with heuristics in place to filterout offers below a certain threshold. In these embodiments, a potentialbuyer cannot send lowball offers that are not worth the seller's time tolook at these things

In embodiments where the registrant lists the domain name in the domainname aftermarket, the registrant may be provided access to a domain nameaftermarket administration tool. In some embodiments, this tool may beavailable to the user via the DCC, may be accessible via the notice fromthe interested user of their interest in the domain name or by any othermeans. The domain name aftermarket administration tool may comprise anyadministration tools known in the art.

The administrator of the software may mediate any offers/counteroffersfor the domain name and the software may be configured to provide a feeto the administrator for negotiating the offer/counteroffer/sale of thedomain name, possibly having the registrant pay the costs.

Several different methods may be used to provide and manage the presentsystems. FIG. 3 represents a flow diagram for one possible embodiment ofthe previously described improvements on presently existing systems. Inthis example embodiment, one or more server computers 110 may becommunicatively coupled to the network 100 and may be configured to:receive a search for a domain name (Step 300); query a domain nameregistration record to determine an availability status of the domainname; responsive to a determination that the availability status of thedomain name is unavailable, store in a database communicatively coupledto the network, the domain name in association with a user data recordand a search date (Step 310); determine whether a change in theavailability status has occurred; and responsive to a determination thatthe change in the availability status has occurred, determine whether aduration of time since the search date has passed (Step 320), ifapplicable; and responsive to a determination that the duration of timesince the search date has not passed, transmit, to a user contact, anotice of the change in the availability status.

In other embodiments such as that shown in FIG. 4, the or more servercomputers 110 may be configured to: receive one or more searches for adomain name (Step 400); generate a notice comprising: the one or moresearches; at least one unsolicited offer for the domain name; or avaluation of the domain name based on the at least one search or the atleast one unsolicited offer (Step 410); identify the contact data in thedatabase (Step 420); and transmit the notice (Step 430).

The steps included in the embodiments illustrated and described inrelation to FIGS. 1-4 are not limited to the embodiment shown and may becombined in several different orders and modified within multiple otherembodiments. Although disclosed in specific combinations within thesefigures, the steps disclosed may be independent, arranged and combinedin any order and/or dependent on any other steps or combinations ofsteps.

Other embodiments and uses of the above invention will be apparent tothose having ordinary skill in the art upon consideration of thespecification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. Thespecification and examples given should be considered exemplary only,and it is contemplated that the appended claims will cover any othersuch embodiments or modifications as fall within the true scope of theinvention.

The Abstract accompanying this specification is provided to enable theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally todetermine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and gist of thetechnical disclosure and in no way intended for defining, determining,or limiting the present invention or any of its embodiments.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising a server comprising acomputing device coupled to a network and including at least oneprocessor executing instructions within a memory which, when executed,cause the system to: responsive to a determination that an availabilitystatus of a domain name, determined from a domain name registrationrecord, is unavailable: identify a user identifier associated with auser operating a client coupled to the network from which a domain nameregistration request was received, the domain name registration requestcomprising a token; access a domain name registration log to determine aplurality of optimal default values associated with the user identifierand comprising: an average time, for a plurality of domain nameregistrations associated with the user identifier, between the userrequesting a registered domain name, and the user registering theregistered domain name; at least one second level domain (SLD), withinthe plurality of domain name registrations, including the token or atleast one synonym of the token; and a top level domain (TLD) thatappears most frequently within the plurality of domain nameregistrations; store the domain name in association with the user datarecord and a search date; determine whether a change in an availabilitystatus for the domain name has occurred; responsive to a determinationthat the change in the availability status has occurred, determinewhether a duration of time since the search date has passed, theduration of time being automatically determined from the average time;and responsive to a determination that the duration of time since thesearch date has not passed, transmit, to a user contact associated withthe user identifier, a notice of the change in the availability status.2. The system of claim 1, wherein the domain name registration requestis aggregated with a plurality of searches into a domain name search logcomprising a plurality of domain name search records, each of theplurality of domain name search records comprising: the user identifier;a domain name or keyword searched; and a date of the search.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the user contact comprises: an email address;a number for a text or phone message; a social media account accessdata; or a control panel access data.
 4. The system of claim 1, whereinthe instructions further cause the system to: render, transmit anddisplay, on the client communicatively coupled to the network, agraphical user interface (GUI) configured to receive at least oneparameter of the notice comprising: the duration of time; an amount andformat of the notice; a TLD preference; an SLD name preference; andgenerate and transmit, through the network, the notice based on the atleast one parameter.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the instructionsfurther cause the system to calculate and set an optimal default valuefor the at least one parameter from at least one domain name search andat least one domain name registration.
 6. The system of claim 1, whereinthe duration of time is calculated by identifying an average or alongest time period between a domain name search and a domain nameregistration.
 7. The system of claim 4, wherein the amount and format ofthe notice are determined by: at least one domain name searched orregistered by the user; a token distance between a plurality of searchedor registered domain names; at least one related or synonymous keywordin the plurality of searched or registered domain names; a TLD or an SLDin the plurality of searched or registered domain names; or a valuationor aftermarket price for each of the plurality of searched or registereddomain names.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the SLD comprises atleast one keyword or a synonym of the at least one keyword in thesearch.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the domain name requestcomprises: a search string comprising a full domain name; or at leastone keyword.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the domain name becomesavailable and the notice is triggered by: being dropped; expiring; orbeing listed on a domain name aftermarket.
 11. A method, comprising thesteps of: responsive to a determination that an availability status of adomain name, determined from a domain name registration record, isunavailable: identifying, by a server comprising a computing devicecoupled to a network and including at least one processor executinginstructions within a memory, a user identifier associated with a useroperating a client coupled to the network from which a domain nameregistration request was received, the domain name registration requestcomprising a token; accessing, by the server, a domain name registrationlog to determine a plurality of optimal default values associated withthe user identifier and comprising: an average time, for a plurality ofdomain name registrations associated with the user identifier, betweenthe user requesting a registered domain name, and the user registeringthe registered domain name; at least one second level domain (SLD),within the plurality of domain name registrations, including the tokenor at least one synonym of the token; and a top level domain (TLD) thatappears most frequently within the plurality of domain nameregistrations; storing, by the server, in a database communicativelycoupled to the network, the domain name in association with a user datarecord and a search date; determining, by the server, whether a changein an availability status for the domain name has occurred; responsiveto a determination that the change in the availability status hasoccurred, determining, by the server, whether a duration of time sincethe search date has passed, the duration of time being automaticallydetermined from the average time; and responsive to a determination thatthe duration of time since the search date has not passed, transmitting,by the server, to a user contact associated with the user identifier, anotice of the change in the availability status.
 12. The method of claim11, wherein the domain name registration request is aggregated with aplurality of searches into a domain name search log comprising aplurality of domain name search records, each of the plurality of domainname search records comprising: the user identifier; a domain name orkeyword searched; and a date of the search.
 13. The method of claim 11,wherein the user contact comprises: an email address; a number for atext or phone message; a social media account access data; or a controlpanel access data.
 14. The method of claim 11, further comprising thesteps of: rendering, transmitting and displaying, by the server, on theclient communicatively coupled to the network, a graphical userinterface (GUI) configured to receive at least one parameter of thenotice comprising: the duration of time; an amount and format of thenotice; a TLD preference; an SLD name preference; and generating andtransmitting, by the server through the network, the notice based on theat least one parameter.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprisingthe step of calculating and setting, by the server, an optimal defaultvalue for the at least one parameter from at least one domain namesearch and at least one domain name registration.
 16. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the duration of time is calculated by identifying anaverage or a longest time period between a domain name search and adomain name registration.
 17. The method of claim 14, wherein the amountand format of the notice are determined by: at least one domain namesearched or registered by the user; a token distance between a pluralityof searched or registered domain names; at least one related orsynonymous keyword in the plurality of searched or registered domainnames; a TLD or an SLD in the plurality of searched or registered domainnames; or a valuation or aftermarket price for each of the plurality ofsearched or registered domain names.
 18. The method of claim 17, whereinthe SLD comprises at least one keyword or a synonym of the at least onekeyword in the search.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein the domainname request comprises: a search string comprising a full domain name;or at least one keyword.
 20. The method of claim 11, wherein the domainname becomes available and the notice is triggered by: being dropped;expiring; or being listed on a domain name aftermarket.